Phil Reisman: Westchester fair campaign practices group wades deep in a political swamp

Oct. 4, 2012

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Hip waders and mosquito netting should be issued to each of the 15 volunteer members of the Westchester County Fair Campaign Practices Committee.

Every year at election time they walk deep into the Great Viral Swamp — an unmapped, miasmatic zone of political advertising — where the truth is buried under the mud and crud of half-truths and lies. It is a desperate, win-at-all-costs world inhabited by clever rogues, charming enablers, truth-twisting slanderers and propagandists whose mendacity has no limits.

And, oh boy, I love it to bits! I really do.

But, seriously, I wonder how the FCPC people do their important work without throwing up.

Patience helps.

Susan Schwarz, the FCPC chairwoman, strikes me as a paragon of patience.

“We don’t sit in judgment,” she told me. Her tone is diplomatic and her vocabulary is temperate.

You won’t catch Schwarz describing the content of a scurrilous campaign attack with words like “liar” and “sociopath.” That’s the language of criminal pathologists. The FCPC prefers “false” and “misleading” as descriptive terms.

“Those are our key words,” Schwarz said.

Schwarz said that FCPC’s job is to help candidates, rather than castigate them.

“I would say that candidates most often have very good reason to say why they are the right person and the other candidate is not the right person, but they go a little overboard unnecessarily,” she said. “They could make very clear arguments, but sometimes passion gets the better of them. A committee such as ours just helps to keep the political discussion on a fairer level.”

They’ve been at it for more than 20 years, largely thanks to Milt Hoffman who was a political reporter and editor at this newspaper.

Back in 1991, Hoffman wrote an editorial suggesting the formation of a nonpartisan panel whose sole mission would be to handle complaints about unfair campaign practices found in print ads, TV commercials, speeches, posters, mailings, press releases and even random comments made to the press.

The Westchester League of Women Voters thought Hoffman had a damn good idea and, wham-bang, the FCPC was born.

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The committee is something like a truth squad — though it does not crusade. It only acts when someone files a complaint. If they decide to hear an allegation, they hold a meeting at which the candidates and their representatives are invited to make 10-minute presentations. These sessions can get heated.

“We try our very best to keep them from going at each other,” Schwarz said.

It’s not unusual for candidates to bring along a cheering section, too. “They’re, you know, mad as hell,” she said.

After weighing the evidence, the committee then issues one of three possible findings—“fair,” “unfair,” or “no finding.” Each finding includes a brief explanation that is put in writing and released to the candidates and the press.

Keeping candidates on an ethical path is like herding cats. To an outsider, the disputes can seem petty, convoluted and even silly. Some races devolve into a constant back-and-forth of charges and counter charges. This can get dizzying.

For instance, it’s only a matter of time before the epic slugfest in the 37th Senate District race between Republican Bob Cohen and Democrat George Latimer becomes a regular item on the FCPC complaint sheet.

This is an especially ugly contest with a near record amounts of money being spent, especially on the GOP side.

Plus it’s close. On Wednesday, the Siena Research Institute released a poll showing that 44 percent of likely voters favored Latimer while 41 percent backed Cohen and 15 percent were undecided. But Latimer’s unfavorable rating is 29 percent against Cohen’s 23 percent.

Latimer, who currently serves in the state Assembly, has a long record as an elected official and Cohen has never held office — and that may explain the 6 percent gap.

It also could mean that Cohen’s relentless attacks against Latimer as a tax-and-spend career politician have caused some damage.

Not long ago, I wrote a column about a TV ad from Cohen’s campaign that featured a bunch of “regular” people ripping Latimer in man-on-the-street interviews.

One of the interviewees, I reported, was Jim Coleman, the chief of staff for State Sen. Greg Ball, a Republican from Paterson.

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I thought it was funny that Cohen’s campaign used ringers, but I also pointed out that this was not an unusual practice.

Nevertheless, Latimer’s campaign seized on this as unfair and, citing my column, registered a complaint with the FCPC. Then he sent a copy of his complaint letter to media outlets, including The Journal News.

Latimer may or not have a case against Cohen.

But his first mistake was announcing to the world that he had filed the complaint before the committee could examine it.

Jumping the gun is a violation of FCPC rules. So now Latimer may have the unique opportunity of being right while also being wrong.

That’s what I meant when I said these matters can get convoluted.

One more thing: There’s no penalty imposed for lying and prevaricating. However, once publicly exposed, a candidate can pay a stiff price in lost credibility.

To paraphrase a well-known slogan, the FCPC merely reports and the voters must decide.

“Thanks heavens for a free press,” Schwarz said. “We rely on you to get it out there, and that’s the only thing we do.”